Latin Madness! Initium....

The Traditional Latin Mass in all its grandeur and beauty

A lot of my friends will testify over their very own dead bodies how crazy I am with Latin Mass. Actually this craze rages on that even my thesis is about it hehehe. a lot though is not that appreciative of the old rite or as Pope Benedict XVI calls, Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. The picture above shows a typical Solemn High Mass (usually sung) and needs at least three ministers aside from the army of servers. Let me tell you how my love affair with this form of the Mass started

During my childhood days, whenever Todos los Santos approaches, my spinster aunts will usually call for some women for a certain novena offered for the souls in purgatory. Normally they are said in the afternoon and in flickering lights of yellow candles atop a temporary altar with pictures of deceased relatives. This will go on till November. So fast forward to the cemetery visitation (which is a custom here in the islands), those same aunts of mine will get their novenarios (Pagsisiyam sa mga kaluluwa sa Purgatoryo) and recite the prayers and litany which has a substantial amount of Latin texts. I am amazed then how they respond to each supplication with Miserere, Requiem Aeternam etc. Oh by the way, have I mentioned they know by heart the WHOLE novenary in Tagalog? So there, what is its connection with the Latin Mass apart from the text? Well, their novenary booklets feature a mass celebrated in the old way (Traditional Latin Mass) with the priest facing the altar. You know, that old and crisp white booklet containing very deep and almost defunct Tagalog words and sometimes even the spelling? Many Filipinos even today might have noticed this too. In fact, the novenary is still printed with that image as its cover. This caught my attention and imagination."Why is it that way?" I was born waaaaay after Vatican 2 and so is my Mother (Dad is an Agnostic) so we both have no ideas what is it all about. My aunts, on the other hand, lives far from our humble abode hence they can not answer much of my questions (and with the passage of time and their age, they tend to forget a lot).  For years, I was left wondering about that picture. 

The novenario cover is somewhat similar to this picture